CME Activity Planning Primer

Thank you for your interest in working with the NYITCOM Office of Continuing Medical Education to develop a continuing medical education (CME) activity. This primer provides essential information for planning a CME activity.

General Information

Continuing Medical Education (CME) includes educational activities that help physicians and health professionals maintain, develop, and increase their skills and knowledge to deliver high-quality medical care.

NYITCOM’s Role and Accreditation

NYITCOM is accredited by the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) to provide CME for physicians. We ensure that all CME-certified activities meet accepted educational standards, supporting physicians in enhancing their skills, adopting new knowledge, and improving patient care.

Compliance with Standards

NYITCOM follows standards set by the AOA and the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), ensuring objectivity, independence, and scientific rigor in all CME activities.

Key Planning Components

Identify Practice Gaps

Define the difference between current practices and ideal practices in a specific medical area or procedure. This gap highlights the issue or opportunity for improvement that the CME activity will address.

Conduct a Needs Assessment

Collect data to identify the educational needs behind the practice gap. Needs can involve knowledge, skills, or performance.

Set Clear Learning Objectives

Define actionable and measurable outcomes for participants, such as recognizing symptoms or implementing new strategies in healthcare settings.

Determine Target Audience

Specify the primary participants, such as physicians, healthcare professionals, or specialists.

Choose an Appropriate Educational Format

Select a format that aligns with the topic and goals, such as live conferences, enduring materials, or regularly scheduled series.

Address Core Competencies

Ensure the content aligns with relevant competencies like clinical knowledge, leadership, or professionalism.

Develop an Evaluation Strategy

Plan how to assess the activity’s success, using methods like pre/post-tests, surveys, or follow-up evaluations.

Activity Types

  • Live Conferences: Real-time sessions, in-person or virtual.
  • Enduring Material/Online Modules: On-demand content like courses or podcasts.
  • Regularly Scheduled Series: Recurring sessions, such as grand rounds.

Gaps and Needs

Understanding and addressing professional gaps and educational needs is essential for developing a meaningful CME activity.

Practice Gap:

Define the gap between current and ideal practices, such as lack of expertise in managing certain conditions.

Educational Needs:

Identify what educational input is necessary to address the gap. Needs may involve:

  • Knowledge: Basic understanding of the topic.
  • Skills/Strategy: Ability to apply knowledge and strategies in practice.
  • Performance: Action-oriented outcomes, where participants change their practice based on new knowledge or skills.

Example: For a CME activity on facial paralysis, the practice gap might involve limited knowledge of treatment options, while the educational need could focus on both knowledge of surgical techniques and skills for managing non-surgical treatments.

Learning Objectives

Learning objectives should be specific outcomes that participants will achieve by the end of the activity. Good objectives are measurable and action-focused. We encourage planners to use Bloom’s Cognitive Taxonomy.

Examples:

  • Recognize the main symptoms and signs of PH and right heart failure
  • Classify patients with suspected PH into one or more of the major five World Health Organization groups
  • Utilize basic right heart catheterization data to develop initial treatment plans
  • Employ the ventilation-perfusion scan as the gold standard test in the diagnosis of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension
  • Recognize the three main classes of FDA-approved drug therapy for pulmonary arterial hypertension as well as their major associated risks to patient safety

Evaluation and Outcomes

Assessing the effectiveness of the CME activity is crucial. Common methods include:

Knowledge/Competence

  • Evaluation/Self-Assessment: A survey/questionnaire in which the learner evaluates aspects of the activity, such as the speakers, design, and implementation.
  • Audience Response System: A platform in which learners use a device to respond to questions or polls.
  • Knowledge/Competence Pre/Post Test: Questions examining a learner’s level of knowledge before and after the activity.
  • Physician or Patient Surveys: Data from surveys that illustrate knowledge acquisition due to the CE activity.

Performance in Practice

  • Follow-Up Survey: A survey approximately 60-days post-activity to gather feedback on skill implementation.
  • Commitment to Change with Follow-Up: A survey assessing whether learners followed through on commitments to change.
  • Customized Interview/Focus Group: Semi-structured interviews or focus groups conducted at intervals post-activity.
  • Physician or Patient Feedback: Surveys illustrating skill application in practice due to the CE activity.

Financial Disclosure and Mitigation

To maintain transparency and integrity:

Identifying Financial Relationships:

All participants with control over educational content must disclose financial relationships with ineligible companies from the past 24 months. Refusal to disclose will result in disqualification from activity planning or presentation.

Mitigation of Conflicts of Interest:

NYITCOM reviews disclosures to determine relevance, manage conflicts, and prevent commercial bias through methods like peer reviews and content adjustments.

Disclosure of Financial Relationships to Learners:

The Office of CME will disclose affiliations of content controllers to learners in writing before the activity begins.